Practical responses and examples of best practice
First hand knowledge: voices across the Mekong: community action against trafficking of children and women
Stories from children and women at risk from trafficking in the Mekong region
Authors:
; Mekong Sub-regional Project to Combat Trafficking in Children and Women
Publisher:
International Labour Organization , 2005
This paper is an account of the stories of children and women, and the communities to which they belong, who explain their engagement in a program designed to help prevent trafficking for sexual and labour exploitation. The accounts are drawn from communities in the five participating countries: Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam, and China. The respondents recount the most positive results of the project to date, and how their shared experiences (consultation and participation) have made a difference in their lives. They speak of learning about their rights and ways to take action to protect themselves through a range of community efforts designed to raise awareness about trafficking, to promote gender equality, and to organize self-help groups.
The paper also documents the impact of a rights-based, participatory programme to engage with these individuals. The impats of this approach suggest that:
- children are seeing changes in their relationships within the family, in school, and in the community
- communities are more caring and supportive of children, women, and families at risk of trafficking
- young people are becoming their own advocates and exercising the responsibilities that come with their rights
- women are finding strength in organization
- District and provincial authorities are creating enabling and participatory environment for local action
- national governments are thinking more about their poor and vulnerable groups



